Authorities dismantle botnet with 13 million infected PCs

Half of Fortune 1000 touched

One of the world's biggest botnets has been taken down, cracking open a global platform that infiltrated more than half of the Fortune 1000 companies, according to the Associated Press.

The take down came as authorities in Spain arrested three of the ringleaders of the the botnet, dubbed Mariposa. The suspects haven't been identified by name, but they're described as Spanish citizens with no criminal records whose internet names and ages were "netkairo," 31; "jonyloleante," 30; and "ostiator," 25.

The Mariposa botnet, which infected 12.7 million PCs, appeared in late 2008 and spread to more than 190 countries, the AP reported, citing researchers. The researchers that dismantled it first started looking at it in the spring of 2009.